My Downfall, My Muse
by Doleesa
Summary: Because John Legend had the right idea, but Annabeth never thought it would become so literal for them...


**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns all the characters used within and John Legend owns and performs "All of Me."**

 **A/N: Well! I did it, I finally did it! I am now a published writer on this site! This is my first ever Percy Jackson piece and I'm terrified about posting it. A friend of mine practically had to threaten me to post this after showing it to her. Enough nervous rambling, I hope you read this and more importantly, enjoy it. Reviews would be heavenly. Thank you!**

* * *

John Legend's "All of Me" was his obsession from the moment he heard it.

He'd take any chance he could to sing it – bonus points if he was around a body of water. She had a sneaking suspicion that he sang it to himself when he was relaxing in the lake.

He went out of his way to learn the song (he wrote the lyrics down and pushed through his dyslexia to read them), he pushed himself even more when he decided to learn how to play it on the piano (he made Apollo proud enough that the sun god wished he had falsely claimed him as his own before Poseidon ever did).

He would never forget her face when he had lured her away long enough to surprise her with his own soft rendition of the song.

(He decided that John Legend had the right idea before deciding to learn how to play all of her favorite songs.)

(She was more than okay with that because she never thought that he could be **more** attractive to her than he already was and _where had he been hiding that voice…)_

Needless to say that she was not a happy camper at the extra attention he got from girls after word got out about his new talent that he would demonstrate by following her around camp and serenading her like the utterly dorky Seaweed Brain he was.

(She was beyond thrilled, her inner Aphrodite that she worked so hard to hide threatening to show on more than a few occasions. Athena help her, she was hopelessly in love with this boy.)

Her darkest moments – at the time – weren't when he was missing and she would often sneak away at night to his cabin; somewhere she could let her sobs wrack her body and not be watched or judged for falling apart because her worries and fears for him were shredding her insides.

(Deep down, she knew that her sneaking away wasn't oh so sneaky; the campers probably expected it of her to seek solace in his bed, from his scent that lingered on everything he came into contact with.)

No, her darkest and most hollow times were when she'd walk to the Big House, eyes so distant and mind so elsewhere her body went onto autopilot, her legs mindlessly taking her until she was seated behind the piano he'd often use, and her fingers would play _their_ song until they ached and Mr. D was yelling at her to knock it off.

(She kept playing it anyway, wrath of a god be damned.)

But then she found him and judo-flipped him amidst tearful threats and kisses that were hotter than the surface of the sun itself.

(His cabin on the _Argo II_ had a spinet piano against the wall thanks to Piper poking and prodding and _charmspeaking_ Leo because – let's face it – her inner Aphrodite wouldn't have it any other way. Neither would the actual Aphrodite.)

But even as she slipped into his room and made him play for her, she had a nagging feeling tickling the back of her brain that this wouldn't last, especially not with her own upcoming quest for her mother.

(His soft, barely there voice singing her to sleep in the stables is the only thing that calms her mind and takes her mind off of her upcoming solo suicide mission.)

(Coach Hedge's wrath is worth it.)

Too soon, she's in Italy and on the back of a scooter riding away from him. She swears she hears the wind nymphs carry his soft humming to her ears the entire time.

Even sooner than that – she's so thankful for that – her trials are over; she's won, and now she's back in his arms.

Until the earth literally gives way under her feet, and she's being swallowed whole.

(For Hades' sake, can't a girl at least catch her breath first?)

She should have known he'd never let her go so easily.

(She doesn't bother to hide her sobs when he trails gentle kisses to her ear before starting to hum to her.)

(She cries harder whenever she feels him drop another kiss on the back end of her jaw because he feels her breath hitch in her throat. Of course this just makes her breath hitch even more so he keeps kissing her and the cycle repeats itself for a while. She suspects that that was his plan all along. She's convinced when her sobs become hysterical and a mantra of _I'm sorry_ flows from her lips and his humming stops completely, his lips permanently attaching themselves to her pounding pulse point.)

 _Di immortales_ , the deeper she fell into the pits of Hell, the deeper _she fell in love with him_.

It's when she's blind and in despair that she comes to hate _their_ song because Percy Jackson is fighting and killing _arai_ which will _kill him_ but he does it _for her_ – always for her – and one part of _their song_ becomes painfully clear to her even if she is blind.

(She doesn't ever go near another piano after Tartarus, nor does she stick around when someone brings up John Legend. Not after she lost him to the darkness and Thanatos himself.)

 _You're my downfall, my muse._


End file.
